MARINE GENERAL REFLECTS ON DEADLIEST AFGHAN REGION

Year as commander in Helmand and Nimroz marked by insider attacks, withdrawal push

The changes were years in the making, but they came to a head last fall when the coalition turned off the spigot of food, water and ammunition and sent many Marines home.

Marine commanders leading infantry battalions from Southern California assigned to Musa Qala and Sangin conceded it was an uncertain transition — like giving your teenager the keys to the car for the first time.

“Marines are always looking for a good firefight, and when they deployed out here they were under that mind-set, ‘Hey, we are going to seek and destroy the enemy,’” recalled Sgt. Maj. Harrison Tanksley, senior enlisted leader for the southwest regional command. “We had to take a step back and allow the ANA (Afghan National Army) to get out in front, and that required some patience on our part.”

At least twice, Afghan commanders called in the middle of the night saying they needed immediate air support or many would die. Because of poor weather, they had to fend for themselves but did fine, Gurganus said.

“When we pulled the largest number of Marines out, there was real concern on all of their faces. If you talked to some of the leaders, they said, we are going to fail, we are going to fail. We told them, we just don’t think you will, but we will be there if you have to have us.

“It was no time at all before they started realizing they could stand up on their own. ... It has really been amazing how little we have had to do to bail them out.”

The somewhat counterintuitive pullback in the most violent area of Afghanistan was orchestrated by Gen. John Allen, the Marine who led the war campaign until last week.

Allen wanted the Afghans to get used to fighting on their own while a significant number of foreign troops remained to backstop them if needed.

Nearly a third of Afghan infantry battalions in the Helmand region are considered capable of independent operations coupled with U.S. advisers, up from none at the beginning of last year, the southwestern NATO command reported. A fourth brigade of Afghan soldiers began arriving last fall in Helmand, where 16,000 soldiers and more than 12,000 police are now fielded.

As the Marines pulled back, the Taliban overran some positions. But Afghan forces were able to retake all of them on their own, the Marines said.

Afghan troops absorbed a much higher share of casualties in the region last year — about 800 were killed, more than 10 times the number of coalition troops. But overall, violence was down from 15,271 incidents in 2011 to 12,214 in 2012. Despite spikes in two areas, Kajaki and Nad Ali, most other districts in southwestern Afghanistan had fewer attacks in 2012 compared with 2011, including the most violent in the country, Nahr-e Saraj.

However, the Marines suffered painful losses that hit them on both a strategic and a personal level.

Insider attacks

A relatively small number of tactically insignificant insider attacks against coalition troops by Afghan national forces were a strategic victory for the insurgency because of political fallout added to the unpopular war 11 years after it began.